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So glad fall has come, and especially happy that the cool breezy weeks are still peppered with days in the low 80’s. I wish we always had a nice mix of light rain, cool breezes and warm sun. I know this lovely weather won’t last long, so quickly do the best seasons leave us!

I’ve been assigned my garden plot last week and spent a perfect day breaking up the compacted clay and refreshing the soil with horse manure. I haven’t had a chance to plant anything yet. It’s getting so late so I need to do that this weekend, luckily the weather is going to be perfect for that.

Mostly though I’ve been knitting away. The blanket is still not complete. I’m at the half way mark. I’m definitely not progressing as quickly as I was hoping. A whole blanket of seed stitch gets ridiculously boring, so I decided to start a couple of quicker projects to work on when I need a break from the blanket. I’ve almost got my first Saartje’s Booty complete! I just need to knit the button straps and seam them up. I’ve hit a speed bump though and have a problem with casting on for the straps. I just can’t figure it out and apparently I’m not the only one with this problem, but the explanations in the help forums aren’t helping me! I hate being so close to complete and not being able to finish!

I’ve also been thinking up quick knitted christmas gifts to start now…a silk lace scarf, a pair of fetching wrist warmers, a scarflette are all possibilities. Can’t wait. I just love sitting with a warm blanket, a warm drink and something to knit.

In other news, Joe and I are going on vacation AGAIN! I know, that’s a lot of plane rides for us this year! This time I’m taking Joe to Montreal for his birthday (this month). Anybody have any suggestions for good food, things to see and do, that would be great. Just drop me an email or comment here. I’m assuming a hockey game is in order (Joe’s favorite hockey team during his youth was Montreal) and of course the botanical gardens, but what else? We are just staying for the weekend.

Oh yeah, to the local knitters:
I heard about a free alpaca farm tour on Sunday. I’ll probably be going so if anyone wants to come along, drop me a line.

Hopefully I’ll post soon with a completed pair of baby booties and a baby blanket! Have a good day all!

So lately I have been trying to eat locally. Not all locally, but I am making a more concentrated effort. I’ve discovered that there is a farmer’s market every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday all reasonably close by. I also recently discovered a food co-op in Sacramento if I need it. It’s not as difficult to swing eating locally as I thought it would be. It helps a bunch living in the bountiful Sacramento Valley in Northern California. I can find almost any produce that I would normally eat, locally. Even kiwis!

My backyard garden is tiny (very tiny), but already I have used my harvested herbs on a regular basis (lot’s of pesto) and although our veggies are not close to sustaining us, it’s nice to have a meal every now and then featuring something that was raised right in our backyard, like today for instance.

After my visiting family went home yesterday, I was left with loads of food in my kitchen. So I had to use up some of it and quick! I decided that I would make a mish-mash experiment meal with whatever leftovers I could find. I still had a bag of fresh black eyed peas, corn on the cob and onions from the farmer’s market on Friday, also some tomatoes were ripe enough to harvest from the backyard. I boiled the corn and cowpeas together and then sauteed them in olive oil with quartered tomatoes, diced onions and garlic. While that all was going, I cooked brown rice in vegetable broth and more diced garlic. I mixed all the food together and served it hot on top of a bed of baby greens. It was a mighty fine lunch. Joe even had a local snack today of sliced cucumbers from our backyard. He let them soak overnight in white balsamic vinegar and sliced jalapeno. Yum!

And look what we discovered last week!

I had wondered where those two robins had run off to. Apparently raising a nest full of children! I can hear them peeping away right now.

I harvested so much basil from my garden that I just had to make pesto. Last season I made pesto with a food processor and it turned out fine. It wasn’t the most amazing thing I’d ever had. I was about to make it that way again this year, until I found the more traditional method Heidi had written about. It involves hand chopping all of the ingredients. It sounds time consuming and not worth the extra effort…it’s all going to taste the same anyways right?

I thought that, but I was still curious. I have this habit of imagination left over from childhood that I never got rid of and hand chopping various herbs takes me back to making “potions” as a child. Whatever ingredients you can find -mash, chop, or grind with a stone you picked up off the ground and voila! You can make any magical potion you need. Same goes with buying cream that comes in the little glass milk jugs. It’s fun to feel like I have a milkman. I’m weird.

Anyways, I ended up making the best tasting, best textured pesto I’ve ever had. Erin even seconded it’s tasteworthiness. The chopping didn’t take very long and I wouldn’t have much noticed if it did. The process was enjoyable. I felt as if I had much more control over the end result.

I used the yummy pesto in our steak sandwiches which consisted of whole wheat rolls, fried flat iron steak (on a cast iron pan over the bbq), green bell peppers, lettuce, Crème fraîche, and lastly, the pesto. I’m anxious to try a vegetarian version of this. Zucchini comes to mind, Anna has been making delicious looking meals with them. I’ve been thinking next time someone hands me a free bag of zucchini (I know that will happen this summer) I think I’ll bread some slices and fry them up as a meat substitute…or maybe fried eggplant? I’m expecting around 8 from my garden in a couple more weeks. Yum.

^Erin & Justin enjoyed the river view!

Today has been a good day and it’s only 2 in the afternoon. We walked down to old Folsom with Erin and Justin to eat breakfast at Sutter Street Grill and took a long walk down by the American river. We found so many fruits and plants to nibble on our river walk- fennel, dill, figs, pomegranates, plums, and blackberries.

A little ways down a whole good chunk of the trail had been caught in a fire. I don’t think it was from all the smoke Joe and I saw a few days back, this one looked like it had been a controlled burn (but really we don’t know). We felt like archeologists excavating bits of history (okay, mainly old cans). The burnt areas revealed many old flat top beer cans with church key openings. We did a bit of research and figure they must be from around the 50’s because that type of can stopped production by the 60’s.

We even came across an area that was still smoking and eventually heard the sirens of a fire truck that came to take care of the flare up. And among the ashes I spotted a blue-tailed skink wriggling away. I fumbled for the camera, but the little guy was just too fast, but boy was his tail bright! I don’t understand how that helps them survive, if anything, I would think it would be a problem being so easy to spot.

After the river walk, we headed back to old Folsom to the Brewmeister for extra brewing supplies. Did I mention that Joe and Justin are brewing a Belgian Whit? The wort is gurgling in our bathtub right now. The carboy is covered in brown cloth and looks a bit Yoda-ish. It’s kind of creepy.

After some much needed supplies, Erin and I convinced the gang to head over to the corner market for an icee and then down to Comstock street where I had spotted an amazing front yard garden the week prior that I had to show them. When we got a closer look it was actually spanned throughout three homes. Flowers were everywhere and there were several beds packed with every kind of vegetable imaginable! We spotted an old woman amongst the greenery working away. I complimented her on her work and she came right over and talked our ears off. Her name was Gladys Trejo and she was 91 years old (she didn’t look close to that age!). She had lived in Folsom for the last 60 years and was the president of the Folsom Garden Club about *edited* 40 years ago. She’s still a member and apparently the lush oasis she was working in was the club’s community garden! She told us we should join when they start up again in the fall and you better believe that I’m going to. I’m so happy that there is a community garden a stone’s throw from our house. I’ve lived here for 2 years now and never knew!

Dinner and brewing will commence again later today so I’ve got to get a few chores out of the way, but I just had to write about how elated I am feeling right now. What a day!

Today I spent the morning puttering around the backyard with my tea and banana nut muffins. I did some late spring cleaning with the potted plants. I tidied up the succulent containers that I made last spring with plans of displaying them in the front yard. I saw that glass fishbowl that was left outside the other day (as I had been planning to do this for a couple days now) so I thought to myself that today was as good as any other to put together a terrarium.

I used a layer of washed pebbles, charcoal, sphagnum moss, and damp soil. I added the plants (asparagus fern and fittonia) and then a sprinkling of more pebbles and moss. Easy peasy!

Despite not having much to show for my weekend, I did do quite a lot. The new fabrics have been laundered and ironed, a crewel embroidery kit has been started, cupcakes have been baked and frosted, the house has been kept clean (miracle!), and I ate a lot of Joe’s cooking. We had his friend Marc over for a smoked whole chicken which was super tasty. So I can now scratch that off my list. I now know how to prep a whole chicken. It wasn’t as bad as I thought, but I still had to have Joe pull out the last couple of ‘insides’ from it. That got a little gross. Other than that, a little rub of garlic and lemon juice, a dash of salt and pepper, throw the used lemon and garlic inside and toss it in the smoker. Easy! I think I’ll have him cook that more often so I have a nice supply of sandwich meat. I also put together a nice strawberry short cake with freshly baked angel food cake (okay, okay, fresh from the oven from a box) with homemade whipped cream.

This is getting embarrassing. I don’t know what it is, but for some reason I cannot bake a good cupcake to save my life. I made cupcakes last night to make yet another attempt at baking a decent cupcake. I used cream cheese in the frosting this time and it was the best I had made so far. Joy! But- I destroyed the cake part. I think I overcooked them because they were just way too dry. The instructions said bake for 20 mins in a 400 degree oven which seemed like a pretty long time for such a high temperature, so I shortened the baking time, but obviously not enough.

The struggle continues!

In non cooking news, I really am going to go ahead with making the Amy Butler apron. The fabric is now ready to be cut and labeled. Hopefully I don’t mess it up too badly! The instructions seem fairly straight forward. I think I can handle this.

I also spent the weekend planting more veggies and herbs. I had two tomatoes just begging to go in the soil. They had been neglected for a couple weeks (I’m so bad!) and definitely show signs of wear. Despite all that, one of them already has a tomato! Talk about a survivor!

I’m keeping an eye on them and giving them some much needed nutrients. Hopefully they will bounce back and maybe, just maybe, I’ll get to make some yummy BLTs this summer.

Just wanted to share a few things that have been inspiring me lately.

Music I’ve been Listening to (well, the calmer side of what I have been listening to at least):

Mono “Walking Cloud and Deep Red Sky”
Gone, Still

Art & Photography:

Lovepad’s beautiful drawings.
Splat WorldWide’s food pictures!

I found a few more blogs this week and wanted to share them:

Wardi’s Crafty Blog
Twelve22
Julieree

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

My Schlumbergias are blooming. I’m so proud. All on their own. I wasn’t expecting them to bloom at all since they are not getting the recommended light amounts, but they don’t seem to care. My bird’s nest fern had been looking sorry for the last year or so. I’d water it, but it just looked limp and had a grey cast (I kid you not), then my mom came for a visit and watered it and now it looks fantastic! It has regained its bright green color and is no longer mopey! My mother must have a magic touch with plants (even though that orchid of hers didn’t make it).

On a completely different subject:

I’m tired of all this “war on Christmas” crap. It’s all a bunch of hoo-hah if you ask me. Why on earth is it so hard for people to say “happy holidays” instead of “merry Christmas” to take into consideration the other millions of people in this country who don’t celebrate Christmas? Why is it so damned hard to put up a Menorah next to the nine gigantic Christmas trees at an airport?

Now, I love Christmas. I love seeing all the Christmassy goodness hanging up around town. It gets everyone in the spirit, but I also wouldn’t mind seeing more Hanukkah decorations up. Ooh! Maybe a public Menorah lighting even! Any holiday event is a welcome event. Why not learn a little about another culture? Why be offended by it? Why not embrace them all? It might be fun to add on a few more holidays like Karthikai Deepam or Mawlid. I say the more celebration, the better. There is no war on Christmas, it’s a cry for understanding and acceptance.

Leave it to my favorite author, Ursula K. Le Guin to set me straight. It kind of happened as a “duh!” moment for me.

A couple days ago *correction* Michele Owens posted on Garden Rant about “The Myth of Planning”. Now, I’m crazy about Garden Rant and frequent the site. Much of the content gets me riled up, but in a good way. I agree with much of what they write. “The Myth of Planning” was a bit different. It completely irked me. You see, I had recently posted on my own page about how planning and research can make landscaping easier. Michele implied that planning is a waste of time for the novice.

I wholeheartedly agree that everyone should throw caution to the wind and go for what they like and to not be afraid of failure. But it’s so hard for me to agree that we should just ignore planning. I don’t mean planning as in spending all of your time drawing out a complex blueprint, making meticulous calculations of spacing and such. It doesn’t make sense to torture yourself when all you want to do is something enjoyable like gardening. I mean planning as in “the act of subconcious planning”. The kind of planning that someone does when they can’t stop thinking about a vision they have. The kind of planning that gets you all excited, that gets you wanting to go out and garden.

For me, pouring over books and magazines and talking to other gardeners is all a part of this sort of planning. It’s planning, but it’s fun. It’s exciting.

So I say to you, read! Know your basics and know at least some general plant knowledge, but use your own judgement: if you find a book that suggests methods you know won’t work for you, find another book. There are plenty out there and not all of them are terribly misleading. My first gardening book (I’m lying I suppose, I did have a basic gardening book as a child as well) was Gayla Trail’s You Grow Girl and I found it indespensable! I wouldn’t have known much of anything and probably wouldn’t have become nearly as interested in plants as I am now without it.

Start out small. Don’t go putting all your eggs in one basket by rushing out and buying loads of expensive plants. I think if the beginner experiences a large scale failure, they are more likely to get frustrated and give up. Scale of failure is avoidable. On the other hand, failure alone is never avoidable. For every few plants you grow, one or two are sure to die. Sometimes it’s not even your fault. There are so many variables, you might never know why that delphinium croaked. It just comes with the gardening territory.

So back to Mrs. Le Guin’s amazing eye opening statement:

I had noticed that she had a new book out and I very excitedly began reading an interview about the book. When the interviewer asks “While working on a novel, do you plan the events that will occur in your characters futures?”, she replies:

My writing self is working away on who does what next and why, all the time; but it isn’t planning, it isn’t developing, the process is not as rational and under control as that. It’s groping and discovering, going wrong, thinking back, seeing connections, imagining where the story might go, saying “Oh no”, saying “Aha!”

After reading that line I think I understand what the ladies at Garden Rant were trying to say. We can’t always expect to succeed right away despite how much you have planned and prepared and researched. Things go wrong and that’s that. Gardening is “groping and discovering, going wrong, thinking back, seeing connections, imagining where the story might go, saying “Oh no,” saying “Aha!”. Just get out there and learn by doing and above all, don’t give up!

Today at the farm I dug up and divided the iris bed. It was a large task and I didn’t come close to finishing before I had to leave for school.

It is a wonderful feeling digging in the earth in the morning sunshine. Who knew that something so repetitive as digging and lifting and dividing and cutting could be so rewarding? Shoveling until my back aches and clawing in the moist soil to feel for the bottom of the rhizome until my fingertips are tender are surprising joys that come with working in the soil. When I drive by men doing landscaping in the neverending expanse of shopping centers, I poke my nose out long enough to smell the soil! It’s the basic manual labor that is getting dirty that I think I appreciate most about gardening.

When I arrived home from taking my chemistry test (my mind had already ejected any and all thoughts of moles, formula units and nomenclature) I immediately spent time with my tiny container garden next to our front door. Sometimes I just stand there, hovering over my pots, inspecting each leaf until the trail of ants who are continuously marching through my container garden find their way up my leg. Before they managed to find my foot, I noticed that my Chinese Lanterns (Physalis alkengi) had a tiny orange lantern. The ants had found it before I did.

I’ve read and read about how fast radishes grow, but I still had found myself in shock at how big they already were when I came home today. My swiss chard and bok choi seedlings have ceased to grow while my beets and carrots are moving along at a steady pace. I decided it was time to give the little buggers a douse of fertilizer. They probably needed it.

After completing that task, I didn’t know what else to do. Everything was still tidy and kept up from tending to the pots a few days prior. I had to think of something to do because Joe wasn’t due home for hours and I didn’t want to just sit indoors all day. So I decided to recycle some old potting soil (replenished with an organic fertilizer) and planted Petits Pois Baby Peas ‘French Citadel’ outlined with a small planting of ‘Petit Dejeuner’ French Breakfast radishes. Still not ready to come indoors, I pulled out a package of Lollo Rossa lettuce seeds and interplanted them with my wine crate of easter egg radishes.

My garden may be growing sick of the sight of me.